The Trosley Triskelle, June 1999 near Trosley Country Park. Supplied Andrew King

Bright lights hovering in the sky, strange and intricate symbols appearing miraculously overnight in farmer’s fields – no, this is not a scene from the latest The X Files film, but unexplained phenomena far closer to home.

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

The release of top-secret Ministry of Defence files has revealed north Kent has been a hive of paranormal activity, with three separate incidents reported to the authorities in the space of two years.

Investigators into the phenomenon of crop circles have discovered a series of intricate geometric designs carved into fields across the region. They believe they are too complex and appear too suddenly to be man-made.

Andrew Fowlds, a member of Medway Crop Circle Group, has compiled information on the symbols appearing across the Medway Valley for the past 20 years. He believes the designs have a supernatural cause.

He said: “There will always be the sceptics but I would say to them go out and do some research. We have evidence of these things appearing in the space of a day, with people around to be witnesses and no one has been seen entering the fields.

“The designs are so complex and intricate as to suggest it is more than a couple of hoaxers with some boards out flattening patches of grass.”

In the past 20 years, the group has photographed 12 crop circle formations in the countryside surrounding Gravesend and Dartford.

The most recent was in 2005, with the appearance first of The Meopham Circles and then The Nookie Bear in the same field near Nurstead Court.

A flurry of activity was reported between 1999 and 2001, a similar time to that revealed in the released reports.

The eye-witness accounts released by the MoD suggest Mr Fowlds is not alone in believing we have been visited by interstellar travellers.

In one account, the Ministry of Defence received a report of a sighting above the QEII bridge in Dartford on November 1, 2000.

The witness described seeing a pinpoint of light darting from side to side in an erratic manner for 10 seconds just after 9.30am

A group of round, very bright golden ovals were seen in Gravesend on May 29 of that year.

The viewer, who was indoors at the time, said there was a small whirlwind, then the eight ovals appeared and hung in the air for more than 10 minutes.

They were described as moving in a fast but smooth gliding motion. The witness claims neighbours also saw the objects at about 9.45pm.

Two years earlier a bright pulsating orb was spotted in the sky from the south-east edge of Gravesend. The object was described as performing a slow cartwheel across the sky at about 12.30am on October 12.

The brothers who reported the siting used binoculars to view the phenomenon.

Not all followers of the supernatural are believers.

Neil Arnold, who has written a book on the paranormal in Kent, believes most sightings are imagined by the viewer.

He said: “It is a cultural phenomenon not little green men. If you put the idea of something in someone’s head they will often see it.

“People have been reporting unusual sightings throughout history but what they have seen has changed, which leads me to think it is something about the human mind.”